1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image color extracting and recovering method, and a database generation and image searching method which are capable of automatically extracting an effect color of an image (which affects an original image color) pictured by a camera in accordance with an illumination condition and a color lens (or color filter) and a feature of the camera and processing the extracted effect color for thereby recovering an original image color.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, an image color of an object pictured using a certain camera (for example a digital camera, a video camera, etc.) may have an original color of an object and different image colors in accordance with a surrounding environment of the object and a feature of the camera.
Namely, in the case that an object is pictured under an artificial illumination or pictured using a color filter mounted at the camera, an image color of an object pictured using the camera having different features according to a manufacturing company of the camera has a different color due to an effect with respect to the pictured image color. For example, if a white color clothes (for example, a wedding dress) under a yellow illumination is pictured using the camera, the white color clothes has a yellow-white color. Namely, the image color pictured using the camera has different image colors from those of the original image colors in accordance with the surrounding environment and the feature of the camera.
However, in the conventional image searching method, it is impossible to recover the original image color by correcting the image color which is different in accordance with the surrounding environment and the feature of the camera.